Tales of Hanoi Streets: The ‘Underworld’ Market in Hanoi
Today, 19 Thang 12, or the 19th of December, is Hanoi’s first book street, crowded with visitors walking around and taking pictures. But few people know that the area used to be called the Underworld Market for its mass grave during the Anti-French Resistance War. A mysterious corner of Hanoi Today Hanoi’s Book Street. Photo: Donic Trinh Hanoi has a small street near the Supreme People’s Court and Mélia Hanoi Hotel, stretching only about 200 meters from Ly Thuong Kiet Street to Hai Ba Trung Street. Named “Hanoi Book Street”, it was once a market known only by Hanoians born before the early 1980s, with a spooky name: the Underworld Market. An Pham, 54, a resident who lives in Cua Nam Ward, Hoan Kiem District, told The Hanoi Times that when she was a child, she was filled with fear whenever she walked down Hai Ba Trung Street or Ly Thuong Kiet Street. The market was a desolate and mysterious place. “The two ends of the street were barricaded, with only quietness ...